Dropping the Gloves: TImonen's demotion

The Flyers are 1-7 entering Thursday night's game against the New York Rangers. (USA Today Images)

As of today, the Flyers are eight points behind eighth-seeded Ottawa for a playoff berth. As early as things are into the NHL schedule, the CBC ran a stat recently that does not bode well for the Flyers.

Since the 2004-05 lockout, only three of 32 clubs that were 4-7 points out of a playoff spot on Nov. 1 have made the playoffs.

How is that possible? Because of overtime and shootout losses, teams are picking up more points than you think with losses.

According to Elias, those three teams were the 2006-07 Calgary Flames (seven points back), and the 2010-11 Buffalo Sabres and 2011-12 Boston Bruins, both of whom were four points behind on Nov. 1.

None of this favors the Flyers' postseason chances as they prep for the Rangers tonight at the Wells Fargo Center (see game notes).

Now the caveat here is that under the NHL’s new playoff format, the top three teams in each division make the playoffs. It’s possible that if one division is so bad, the third-place club might be seeded 10th with a chance at qualifying that way.

Flyers captain Claude Giroux remains undaunted.

"When you have the record we have right now, you’re a little frustrated and you try to figure out what’s going on, but everybody came to the rink and we know there’s a lot of hockey left to play here," Giroux said.

"We’re not far at all. How many points are we off ... to think that with the start we had, we’re that close. We’ve never thought that we’re not going to make the playoffs.